As a young boy I remember traveling to Ireland to visit my Grandmother and other relatives. I think it was in 1986 that I became a collector of Airfix figures. While we traveled through the small towns of Ireland I searched any hobby or toy store to be found. I picked up about a dozen boxes of the World War II sets.
Each boxed set had 14 figures. Some times they had a extra figure or two. Each box cost about $4.00 at the time. I was able to find most the World War II sets in Ireland. This started me down a path to try to get a box of each set. Over the years I did get a box of each Airfix World II set in 1/32 scale. It was not until a few years ago that I started looking for the Modern or Nato figures. A few weeks ago I finally found a set of the Nato Infantry in really good condition.
Airfix Nato figure next to a 54mm Marx Japanese soldier.
This set has 7 different figures. The scale of these figures are smaller than the World War II figures. Here are some pictures below of the box and then some pictures of the toy soldiers.
This boxed set was produced in either 1983 or 1984. As usually the box art was really nice.
Here are all the figures. This set is filled with action poses. I like the soldier using the rifle like a club. I was surprised about the scale of these figures. This set and the Modern Russians are the same size. I will set up something in the future with both sets. I am still looking for a boxed set of the Russians. One day… If you are interested in learning more about Airfix figures check out this German link, http://airfix132.de/index.html.
Airfix also did sets for Modern British and German Infantry back in the mid-70’s. I have a few boxes and they are excellent sets, very well sculpted. The NATO/Americans aren’t my favorite, the helmets are just plain incorrect. It’s the front of the helmet, too flat. And although Airifx usually did a pretty good job with poses, the guy running with the rifle looks kind of odd. I have a single 14 figure box of NATO/Americans to have for the collection, but haven’t bothered to get any more. The Russian they did were pretty decent, have some boxes of those as well.
Another era they dabbled in was Napoleonic, they did four sets. The French line infantry and Imperial Guard and the British line infantry and Highlanders. Same quality in the sculpting, excellent. Muskets seem kind of short in my opinion, but they’re serviceable.
Yes you are right about the NATO troops. I think it is only collectible for someone that wants to collect all the sets or boxes. They are also a little smaller than most of the other 1/32 scaled sets too.
I have some of the Airfix Napoleonic sets too. I like these sets too. The boxes were nice also.